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Re: What happened to "use control-alt-backspace to terminate X server?"



On Sun, Mar 09, 2014 at 10:38:35AM -0400, Rob Owens wrote:
> On Sun, Mar 09, 2014 at 04:08:06AM -0700, Rick Thomas wrote:
> > In Wheezy, I used to be able to use
> >     dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration
> > to (among other things) set the option to use control-alt-backspace to terminate the X server.
> > 
> I think you can still terminate the X server with this combination:
> 
> Ctrl-Alt-Shift-PrtSc-k

Actually, SysRq+K is the Secure Attention Key (SAK). It is the
equivalent of Ctrl+Alt+Del in Windows. Basically, the intention is that,
if you walk up to a computer you have access to, but don't necessarily
trust, you press this key combo before logging in. You are then taken to
a secure state where it's safe to enter your credentials - that is,
you're not looking at some application that's pretending to be a login
window (a trojan), you are actually at a login window.

On Windows, this is achieved by switching to the Winlogon component. In
DOS, this was achieved by forcing a reboot. In Linux, this is achieved
by killing every application on the TTY (init will then typically spawn
a new getty for you).

> 
> You might need a third hand...
> 
> -Rob


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